


Shot Through the Heart (But Cupid has Terrible Aim)

by MonokumaCuddles (SucculentStrawberries)



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Dangan Ronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Awkward Crush, Awkward Flirting, Bad Flirting, Communication Failure, Dangan Ronpa Spoilers, Emotionally Repressed, F/F, Femslash, Femslash February, Male-Female Friendship, Misunderstandings, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Oblivious, One Shot, POV Female Character, Platonic Female/Male Relationships, Pre-Relationship, School Mode (Dangan Ronpa), Social Issues, Spoilers, Teen Crush, Teenagers, Temporarily Unrequited Love, Trust Issues, Yuri
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-22
Updated: 2020-02-22
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:47:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22841983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SucculentStrawberries/pseuds/MonokumaCuddles
Summary: Kirigiri knows how to deal with several dangerous or outright confusing situations. Unfortunately, even she can find herself unprepared and out of her depth. When she finds a crush on one of her new classmates has grown too big to ignore, Naegi suggests she do something about it.She begins to wonder if it might have been smarter to do nothing at all...
Relationships: Kirigiri Kyoko & Naegi Makoto, Kirigiri Kyoko/Ogami Sakura
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8
Collections: Femslash February





	Shot Through the Heart (But Cupid has Terrible Aim)

**Author's Note:**

> Another fic for femfeb, although sadly it didn't quite work out (YET...). I've had this ship in mind for years and kept meaning to make content for it. 
> 
> I can't believe this series has been out for so long and NO ONE has written or drawn this pairing apparently?!? I seriously can't find a scrap and it makes me sad. So I'm building this ship plank by plank! c:<
> 
> Hoping to make this into a series of loosely connected oneshots! Here's the first one, RIP Kiri and her utter lack of skill. Without murders to solve wtf is she supposed to do all day? Clearly, find ways to embarrass herself c':
> 
> Please note I actually haven't gotten to the school mode yet in my game so forgive mild inconsistencies. I had to skim the wiki for the basic au starting plot without spoiling all the fun social stuff for myself.

She was not ordinarily one to get nervous. Even in the rare scenarios where she was, technically, nervous, she didn’t  _ feel  _ her nerves, and she certainly never showed them. Nerves clouded judgement and gave away one’s upper hand, and so she was always swift to pack them down and away into a dark recess where they wouldn’t bother her, suppressing the physical symptoms as easily as the mental ones.

Her hands did not tremble. Her breathing remained even. There wasn’t much she could do about her skin flushing or paling, but she refused to react to it, and that was usually enough to show she was serious. She could think clearly, and she was never off-kilter.

However, standing here outside of the dojo doors on a Sunday afternoon, her nerves were running wild. Her thoughts were disordered and flitting faster than she could focus on them, her heart was racing, and she didn’t trust herself to grasp the handle until she could get her tremours under control. Did she even want to grasp the handle? There was a very convincing group of thoughts screaming at her to turn around and leave. To forget all of this and go dig through the library or feel along the walls for secret passages. This was a terrible idea. It was a distraction, and it would impact her plans. Naegi didn’t know what he was talking about. She shouldn’t listen to him. She wasn’t the type of person for things like this.

It was  _ already _ a distraction, the other part of her reminded pointedly. Enough of a distraction that she’d cut the wrong wire on a monobear she’d spent the better part of an afternoon working on, because she’d seen a silhouette entering the workroom and turned to stare. Enough that she’d memorized their daily schedule instead of Monokuma’s, like she’d planned to. Enough that she’d ended up lost in more daydreams and missed more important conversations than Touko fawning over Byakuya. 

Absolutely not. She was _ absolutely not _ going to become the schoolgirl with her head in the clouds.

But she  _ had _ , and Naegi, ever perceptive of other people and ever the nauseating optimist and bleeding heart, had insisted she do something about it. Specifically, make an attempt to  _ spend time  _ with the cause of her affliction so that they actually knew she existed. Because up until this point, she had mostly been a self-imposed cryptid since arrival, only meeting with her peers for meals or robotic assembly shifts, and nothing else. They knew she was quiet, secretive, and typically wished to be left alone, and that was roughly the only information available. Which was exactly the amount of information she wanted them to know, really.

Still, if they were going to be held hostage here for a few more weeks, she supposed it wouldn’t hurt to at least see if this was worth pursuing. Just to satisfy her curiosity so it would stop eating away at her.

And so, with a deep breath and a moment to steel herself, she stepped into the dojo to face Sakura Ogami.

~~~

Sakura, as she had expected from her knowledge of the girl’s routine, was sitting on the polished wooden floor with her wild hair pulled back in a tight ponytail, taking her time to shape an impressive bamboo bow. Whereas most people would probably use shaping blocks, the Ultimate Martial Artist was strong enough to shape it with her hands, applying pressure slowly and meticulously to the parts she wanted to shape.

“I suppose if we do end up here for longer than expected, at least I can rest in the knowledge that the equipment will endure.” she mused, pausing several steps away to observe Sakura’s work.

“With proper care and dedication, a Yumi can last for several generations, passed down from archer to archer…” Sakura stroked the wooden curves one last time, nodding in satisfaction before she began to restring it. “However, this one will still need to be tamed.” As the string was wound tightly into place, Sakura glanced up at her. “What’s wrong?”

“Pardon?” 

“Usually the only time we see you is when there’s a surprise meeting, an announcement from the ‘Principal’, or when you have a theory about what has occurred in this place.” Sakura was soon towering over her, standing up and preparing to put the equipment away. “Which are you in need of me for today?”

If she were weaker, embarrassment would have flooded through her in that moment. She truly was so antisocial that no one would believe she could so much as visit without a higher purpose…

“Actually, none of those apply this time. I hope that doesn’t inconvenience you.” The dry smirk she tried to give didn’t feel like her best, but Sakura seemed to find a hint of amusement anyways, chuckling. Still, the other girl was clearly confused, studying her as if she was a bizarre clone attempting to act as the original. 

“So… if I may ask, for what purpose have you come?”

Oh, she wished she knew…

_ To get to know you. To make a fool of myself. To pretend I’m a human being and not a fucked up shell of one. _

“I’ve decided that, given all the time we have to fill here, I might as well attempt some extracurriculars. I’d like to expand my skill set beyond things of a studious nature.”

“I see… Hoping to lessen the divide between brains and brawn, are we?”

“Something like that…” Fighting the urge to look away from Sakura’s questioning gaze, she straightened her posture. “I was hoping you might be willing to offer some beginners’ guidance for archery. If it wouldn’t interrupt your own training.”

“I must admit, I did not expect such a request to come from you. It is… a tad odd. That said, I am willing to assist.” 

“You have my gratitude.” Was that too formal? Hesitation pricked at the tip of her tongue like needles, and she finally spat out an addition. “I... look forward to working with you.”

“Tie your hair back so that it doesn’t betray you.” Sakura suggested, tossing her a spare piece of string. “I shall find you a bow, and then we will work on the basics.”

~~~

As it turned out, despite Sakura’s patience, she was also a fairly swift teacher. She truly had only given her the basics and the proper safety protocols before turning her loose, keeping a watchful eye and letting her figure out the majority for herself. She couldn’t lie, it was… disappointing. And not only because she wasn’t used to struggling with tasks in front of others. 

Although that was still a large part of it. Why had she decided the best first interaction should be sporting-related? She should have gone with a game of chess, or at least something neutral like swimming in the pool… Something where they could make proper conversation.

"Your form is improper. If you wish to hit anything, I suggest you adjust your positioning."

"I believe I'm having trouble grasping this." Both the subject and the bow, which was easily twice her size. Yumis were intended to be larger than the user, of course, and there had been an even larger one provided for Sakura. Her arms were already beginning to burn, although that was nothing compared to the heat washing over her face at what she was about to utter. "Perhaps I might benefit more from a demonstration."

"A demonstration…" Sakura muttered, humming thoughtfully for a moment and squinting at her. Her heart rate was beginning to speed, and she had to work consciously to control her breathing. Despite the cliche line proving the contrary, she had no intentions of appearing desperate for those impeccably toned arms to embrace her.

Which was for the best, because they didn't embrace her at all. Instead, Sakura was merely readying her own Yumi once more and shooting at the targets, droning on about the importance of stance, how the asymmetry made it possible to shoot from a kneeling position, something about the grip and vibration… as often as she tried to take in any information available, no matter the subject, she couldn't be bothered to pay attention this time.

That had been the most obvious line in the book, hadn't it? What had she done wrong? Was her voice just too monotone to get the meaning across? She was willing to admit she wasn't always the best at expressing her emotions, but...

_ Is she oblivious to what I was insinuating? Or is she ignoring it to avoid an awkward confrontation? _

She could handle rejection. Vagueness like this, however, was purgatory. She liked things to be clear cut. She liked to get to the bottom of questions.

There had to be a way to gauge Sakura's interest.

She pried her gaze off of muscular calves and searched her surroundings. They landed on what she probably would have noticed upon first entering the room, if she hadn't been uncharacteristically preoccupied. 

"The blossom trees are flourishing in here..." she mused during a pause in the woman's lecture, catching one of the floating pink petals in her glove.

"Are you intending to crack a joke about my name?" 

There was the slightest hint of irritation under the deadpan, and whatever poorly-thought-out comparison she was going to mention lodged in her throat like a chunk of gravel. "No." she choked out, looking back at her own bow as she fumbled to bring it back into position. “It was simply an observation.”

"Good. I don't think I've gone a single spring day without hearing one." Sakura huffed, splitting the unfortunate arrow already lodged in the bullseye with a fresh one.

Her own arrow slipped out of place before she could attempt to fire it, and her stiff, trembling fingers didn't ease her frustration as she tried to put it back. Normally she didn’t mind when people weren’t talkative. She preferred it. But now that she was stuck here, out of her depth in multiple aspects, and watching every attempt she made to engage fail immediately… The silence was deafening. Part of her wanted to go step in front of Sakura's target and be done with it already.

She had to shatter it. She had to say something,  _ anything. _

"Did you know that some statistics say the mortality rate is as high as 17% for penetrating head injuries?"

Sakura's next arrow missed its mark by a centimeter, lodging in the right side of the center ring. "What?"

She finally managed to fire an arrow of her own off, the tip barely managing to cling to the target's bottom edge. She set to work trying to load up her next one. "If someone were shot in the head with an arrow, it would be classified as a penetrating head injury. The surprising thing is, even with that mortality rate, a lot of the deaths arguably wouldn't be from the arrow itself. It's highly unlikely that it would be an instant death."

"Oh? What... might the cause of death be then?"

"Infection, haemorrhaging, or brain swelling. Those are what would likely kill someone. There have been a few rare cases where an arrow hit someone's head, but didn't penetrate the brain at all. However, if one was hit through the heart, they would likely die in a handful of minutes. But let's say it was the thigh instead. If the femoral artery was pierced, the victim may have around five to ten minutes, but that time limit could be increased if they applied pressure to slow the bleeding and had adequate access to medical care." She paused for both breath and to take her next shot. It veered sharply up and to the left to lodge in the corner of the target, a result of overcorrecting her position when her aching arms had let the bow dip during her shot. "Interesting how it varies, isn't it? Depending on where an arrow strikes, you could be perfectly fine or on the ground in moments."

"I see…" Sakura finally turned to look at her properly. "That is an interesting bit of trivia. If I may ask… how did you come to be so knowledgeable about the subject?"

It was only as she took a breath to answer that she realized she didn't have one. It had come to her thoughts naturally, branching off of her earlier sarcastic musings of suicide, but she couldn't recall where she'd learned it. Like many of her memories, anything about her life itself was walled off, leaving only useless facts behind. She wasn't exactly eager to tell the rest of her classmates that she was an amnesiac though. Not, at least, until she had a chance to attempt to figure things out for herself. 

"Oh, I probably just… read it somewhere." she murmured, reaching for her braid before remembering she'd tied her hair back. That only resulted in her feeling even more self-conscious, and she was certain it showed, seeing as she kept looking anywhere but at Sakura. "Or saw it in a documentary years ago. Something like that."

" _ Mmm _ ." Sakura nodded. "Do you have an interest in 'True Crime'?"

"Not in particular." It was a swift answer, and one that felt true in this current time, but that was subject to change. What if she discovered later that the real answer was the opposite? Best to be more neutral, so she couldn't be accused of lying later. "At least, not at the moment."

"Really?" Sakura's eyebrows raised, ever so slightly, but she was back to her usual expression in no time. Calm, strong, with exquisite features that nearly hypnotized her…

Did, in fact, hypnotize her, because she hadn't even realized Sakura had stopped speaking, had ceased shooting and put her bow to the side for a moment. Hadn't realized Sakura had gently plucked the next arrow out of her hands before she could send it plummeting straight to the dojo floor.

"Perhaps… this is not the ideal sport for you." Sakura muttered slowly, and, she now realized with a sinking pit in her chest,  _ warily  _ as she took the bow back, plucking it from her gelatin arms as easily as if she'd been holding a twig. "Something less dependent on coordination and dexterity might be more suited to your… skill level. Aoi might be willing to give you some swim lessons. Or Chihiro mentioned wishing to get stronger. Perhaps the two of you could work out a routine together." 

_ I would gladly take that arrow to the chest now… _

No matter how snidely she thought it, it didn't ease the sting.

She could take a hint. She could certainly take the giant, neon sign Sakura had veiled under polite suggestion. 

"You're correct." she nodded once, determined to keep her voice as void of emotion as ever. Luckily, it seemed she couldn't work up the energy for much else. Until she could go somewhere private to lick her wounds, cold numbness was all she was capable of. "I suppose I'll consider what they have to offer. Thank you for the lesson. I won't intrude on you further today. Farewell."

With that, she strolled out of the dojo, untying her hair as she went. It was only once she was back in her own locked dorm that she allowed leather to claw its way down her face. If she were more prone to emoting, she might have given in to the urge to scream and vent her frustrations. These walls were soundproof, after all. 

But she didn't. A soft groan into her palm was all the pain that could be pulled out of her, and she peeked between her fingers to glare at her reflection in the bathroom mirror.

She wasn't sure she'd ever endured such humiliation. To have Sakura look at her with such obvious discomfort, practically shoving her out of the door… even Touko, aggressive and rude though she was, had been more tolerable for Sakura to hang around with, apparently! She and Aoi had invited that girl out several times!

To even be pawned off on poor Chihiro with her exercise excuse, which was really sending the two of them off to play and leave the 'big kid' equipment to the  _ real _ athletes… That was just outright patronising. She could handle not being skilled at something, and in this case she hadn't been aiming to be, but to be cast aside as if she was completely useless…

If they ever did end up killing each other, Naegi was going to be her first target.

~~~

"So let me get this straight- and I'm not judging you-" Naegi looked very much like he was judging her while she glared at him from across the rec room table. 

Seeing as she had no one else to fill her second 'free time' slot that Monokuma had so graciously offered them on Sundays, she had given in to his request to talk. Which was foolish, seeing as his last invitation to talk had convinced her that interacting with Sakura was a good idea. 

"You decided to make a move on her… by talking about different ways to die by arrow…  _ while _ you were shooting arrows."

"Correct."

"That was your idea of a friendly conversation?"

"I was relating to the topic at hand and volunteering new information and my own thoughts on the matter. Is that not, at its core, what a conversation is?"

Naegi was not impressed by her quip. He just continued to stare at her, eyebrows furrowed, as he ran one hand through his hair. As if grasping at those strands would allow him to grasp a proper response. "You've… you  _ have _ to know how that sounds, right? Like you were threatening to shoot her?"

"I wasn't going to shoot her." she said, unflinching. "I would never shoot someone."

"Yeah,  _ I _ know that. And  _ you _ know that. But I don't think  _ Sakura _ knows that."

"She'd be foolish to believe I could shoot her." she scoffed. "I could barely hold the Yumi. And I only hit the target twice. Neither of which would give me a decent score."

"Monokuma said if he'd already had his spares ready before orientation, he would have us… k-kill each other… Remember?"

"We're constructing the spares at an exceptional rate. We'll be finished by the deadline, and then he said he would tell us how to escape. And if for some reason he betrays us, I'm working on a backup plan. No one will be killing anyone."

"Okay, yes. That's true." Naegi sighed. "But none of us really know each other well. And you're not exactly the most…"

"Pleasant to be around."

"I was going to say talkative! O-Or social!" His attempts to spare her feelings were, admittedly, heartwarming, even if they weren't of much comfort. She knew how terrible she was at all of this. It was ridiculous that she had even tried. She didn't need her failure spelled out for her.

"I  _ know _ I unsettled her, Naegi. You'd have to be blind to miss the way she stared at me when I was shooed out of there." she huffed, clenching her board game piece until she nearly snapped the plastic. "Every plan I had was a failure, and I ran out of options. I panicked, and panic never leads to anything except digging your own grave."

"Picking less morbid topics whenever you talk might be a good start?" he offered weakly. She didn't react, setting her piece down and awaiting his turn. He took her silence as an invitation to keep talking. "Hey, I'm sure it'll go better next time. I mean, you weren't thrilled to hang out with me, but here we are, spending time together almost every day!"

"So you're suggesting I harass her endlessly until she becomes fed up? I'm fairly certain that will only earn me broken bones and a restraining order. If I didn't pity you, you'd be in the same position."

"Ha. Ha." Naegi rolled his eyes. "Look. You'll need to work on your lines, but… the main thing is putting yourself out there more. Don't be so afraid of rejection. Open up a little, like you did with me."

"There's not much  _ to _ open up, remember?"

“There’s enough for me to like you. Which means Sakura probably will too. If you give her something to work with.”

“Name one thing that could appeal to her after the impression I made.”

“Your smile’s pretty nice, when you actually use it.”

“Telling women to smile is going to make you a victim, Naegi.”

“I’m just saying…” Naegi huffed. “You don’t have to twirl your hair or giggle a lot or anything. I know that’s not you, and it’s not really Sakura either. But… at least let her know you like her. That you’re glad she’s around.”

"I… I suppose I could give it another attempt. With your advice in mind."

"That's great!"

"It will have to wait a minimum of three days. Perhaps by then my failures will have faded from the forefront…"

Naegi's face split into a wider grin than it had any right to hold, and she just  _ knew _ it would be something she would despise hearing. "That's a good plan, waiting for her to develop amnesia too!"

"Make another joke about it, and I'll enact such tortures upon you that you'll  _ pray _ you could develop a similar condition..."

"It's a good thing you're such a terrible shot. Or I really would be scared!"

Rolling her eyes at his teasing, she tried to consider her next move on the board. Which was really just a tactic to ignore the fizzing feeling in her chest.

_ I'm glad you're around, Naegi... _

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Feel free to leave a comment (even anon) or kudos, I'd love to hear from you all! ❤ Have a wonderful day and happy Femslash February! :D


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